While the transition to managed care companies handling Medicaid hasn’t gone smoothly, Health and Family Services Cabinet Secretary Audrey Haynes told lawmakers Wednesday that it has saved the state $190 million over the last six months.

Haynes, who took over the cabinet two months ago, told lawmakers that it has cost $190 million less than estimated had the state not hired the three outside companies to take over billing and payment of Medicaid coverage to many of the 820,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians who rely on Medicaid.

Haynes replaced Janie Miller, who left the cabinet this spring.

During her presentation, Haynes listed her immediate goals for the cabinet, the upcoming implementation of KASPER monitoring within the cabinet, social workers, and the struggles and successes of medicaid managed care.

Overall, Haynes said she plans to improve transparency within the cabinet, increasing coordination between the various departments to maximize budget expenditures, and shoring up the widely reported service gaps particularly within medicare managed care organizations.

Haynes told the committee that the cabinet is hiring additional front line social workers thanks to an extra $21 million dollars in the budget. Haynes breaks down the numbers in the video below.

Lawmakers said they appreciated Haynes appearing before the committee. Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, raised her concerns about management in the Louisville office of the Department for Community Based Services that oversees social workers. She raised similar concerns during an appearance on Pure Politics in April.

Haynes said she couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation.

The cabinet is preparing for the July 20 implementation of new rules and regulations for the KASPER prescription pill monitoring system.

“As you might expect it’s no small project and one we are very proud stayed with the cabinet, so we could have a shot to get this right,” Haynes said.

The General Assembly in April passed a new law aimed at curbing prescription pills from flooding into Kentucky by adding new restrictions on pain clinics that can dole out prescription drugs and by requiring more doctors to report what they are prescribing to the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting, or KASPER, system.

Nick Storm

Nick Storm is the Anchor and Managing Editor of Pure Politics available exclusively on Spectrum News. Pure Politics is the only nightly program dedicated to Kentucky politics. Nick covers all of the political heavyweights and his investigative work brings to light issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, like his coverage of the backlog of DNA rape kits waiting to be tested in Kentucky. Nick is also working on a feature length bio documentary Outlaw Poet: A documentary on Ron Whitehead. Pure Politics airs weeknight at 7 and 11:30 on Spectrum News. Follow Nick on Twitter @NStorm_Politics. Nick can be reached at 502-792-1107 or nicholas.storm@charter.com.